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Tuesday, October 23, 2018

I'm delighted to host mentor and friend Gail Z. Martin
for a stop on her blog tour, promoting Scourge and Vengeance, the first two novels in an exciting new
series from Solaris Books! Gail is a veritable force of nature and a publishing powerhouse, and I took this opportunity to ask where it all comes from. What is her #WritersSpark...

The Spark that Starts the Fire

By Gail Z. Martin

Every story starts with a spark of an
idea, something that catches the author’s imagination and then fans into a fire
as the author fleshes out the idea with details, characters, dialog and
actions.

I’ve had that spark happen with a
character idea, a plot bunny, a setting, or even an object. For me, the spark
is asking “What if?” I find one answer, and ask “and then what?” If I keep
alternating “what if” with “and then what” the plot shapes up pretty fast.

Sometimes I’ll get a character in my
mind and I need to come up with the right story and setting for that person,
because he/she is real to me and fully developed. So I have to think of what
sort of danger/problem that would fit the character, and where they’d live,
what talents/abilities they’d have, etc.

In other cases, a myth, legend or
ghost story will catch my attention, and I’ll want to come up with a larger
tale to explain and incorporate it. Or there will be an odd historical
situation, and I’ll want to use it, so I have to build a story around it. I’ve
ended up creating stories because I come upon a really unusual, haunted, or
historical object and wanted to tell its tale.

Or maybe there’s something cool about
a time period that I haven’t seen a story deal with, so I’ll think about how to
put a twist on that element and make it mine. So with Scourge and the rest of
the Darkhurst series, I wanted to play with the concept of medieval city-states
that were in an economic alliance and how that could foster intrigue and murder
when you add in dark magic. I drew on the Hanseatic League and the Italian
city-states for inspiration, as well as role models like Machiavelli and the
Medici family.

Often, a setting will grab me. So with
my Deadly Curiosities books, a visit to Charleston, SC made me intent on
figuring out a fresh urban fantasy series that would be a natural fit for
Charleston. The same is true with all of our books with real-world settings. I
try very hard to make the setting/city a character in its own right, so that
the story couldn’t happen the same way anywhere else. That often has me looking
for local urban legends, haunted sites and ghost stories that I can tweak and
weave into the books, and more than once, has changed the direction of the plot
because I found something really awesome I needed to use!

Like every author, I’m also influenced
by headlines, TV shows, movies, interactions with people at the grocery store.
Something on the news will catch my attention, and I’ll think, what if there
were vampires involved? Or magic? I’ll see a movie, TV show or book deal with a
topic, and wonder what would have happened if they had done it a different way.
That’s often the spark of something that is wholly original, but still rooted
in its inspiration. Or I’ll be people-watching at a restaurant, mall or airport
and see someone do something or overhear a conversation, and that will spark a
tangent, or a character, or a plot bunny.

For me, the spark of inspiration is
everywhere. I usually have more ideas in my head than I have time to write!
That’s good for readers, because the tide of books won’t be subsiding any time
soon!

~Gail Z. Martin

About the books:

Scourge: A Darkhurst Novel

In a city beset by monsters, three
brothers must find out who is controlling the abominations.

The city-state of Ravenwood is
wealthy, powerful, and corrupt. Merchant Princes and Guild Masters wager
fortunes to outmaneuver League rivals for the king’s favor and advantageous
trading terms. Lord Mayor Ellor Machison wields assassins, blood witches, and
forbidden magic to assure that his powerful patrons get what they want, no
matter the cost.

Corran, Rigan, and Kell Valmonde are
Guild Undertakers, left to run their family’s business when guards murdered
their father and monsters killed their mother. Their grave magic enables them
to help souls pass to the After and banish vengeful spirits. Rigan’s magic is
unusually strong and enables him to hear the confessions of the dead, the
secrets that would otherwise be taken to the grave.

When the toll exacted by monsters
and brutal guards hits close to home and ghosts expose the hidden sins of
powerful men, Corran, Rigan and Kell become targets in a deadly game and face a
choice: obey the Guild, or fight back and risk everything.

Fighting the monsters that killed
their family and friends cost undertaker brothers Corran and Rigan Valmonde
their home and livelihood and made them wanted men—but the worst is yet to
come.

The city-state of Ravenwood is
wealthy, powerful, and corrupt. Merchant Princes and Guild Masters wager
fortunes to outmaneuver League rivals for the king’s favor and the best trading
terms. Ambitious and ruthless leaders use betrayal and assassination to gain
their ends. Blood magic conjures monsters to further the goals of the ruling
class, and the price of stolen power is paid for by the deaths of commoners.
Now, the fate of Ravenwood hangs in the balance as rival city-states maneuver
to gain advantage.

When Corran and Rigan and their
friends became outlaw monster hunters and fled beyond the walls of Ravenwood
City, they thought they had defeated the source of the abominations that killed
so many of their friends and loved ones. But the more successful they become at
destroying the creatures, the more they realize a greater evil is at work –
larger and more monstrous than they ever could imagine…

Gail Z. Martin is the
author of Scourge: A Darkhurst Novel, from Solaris Books. Gail is
also the author of Vendetta: ADeadly Curiosities
Novel and Trifles and Folly 1: A Deadly Curiosities Collection,
the latest in her urban fantasy series set in Charleston, SC; Shadow
and Flame is the fourth book in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga; The
Shadowed Path (The first Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures collection), as
well as Iron and Blood a Steampunk series, and Spells,
Salt, & Steel, both co-authored with Larry N. Martin.

She is also author of Ice
Forged, Reign of Ash, and War of Shadows in The
Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, The Chronicles of The Necromancer series (The
Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven, Dark Lady’s Chosen); The Fallen Kings
Cycle (The Sworn, The Dread) and the urban fantasy
novel Deadly Curiosities and Tangled Web. Gail
writes three ebook series: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures,The
Deadly Curiosities Adventures and The Blaine McFadden
Adventures. The Storm and Fury Adventures, steampunk
stories set in the Iron & Blood world, are co-authored with Larry N.
Martin.

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Favorite Quotes

You have to start somewhere in order to end up somewhere good!~Margaret S. McGraw

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Be kind, be brave, be fierce, be love.~Laura Anne Gilman

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Some things in life cannot be fixed. They can only be carried.~Megan Devine

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~Mark Twain

~ ~ ~

Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. ~Casey Kasem

When opportunity puckers up, lean in for a smooch. Only a fool tells the angels to come back tomorrow.~Steven Barnes

~ ~ ~

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.~ Dalai Lama

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We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.~ Japanese proverb

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No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.~ Aesop

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Everything flows, nothing stays.~ Heraclitus

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Balance, always a balance. Work to give life purpose, play to lift the heart, music to soothe the spirit, love to give one strength. One cannot ask for more.~ Pelzmantel, K.A. Laity

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Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.~ 1st part paraphrased from J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan; 2nd part from either Plato or (more likely) Philo of Alexandria

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If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives... be kind anyway

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies... succeed anyway

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you... be honest and frank anyway

What you may spend years building, someone may destroy overnight... build anyway

If you find serenity and happiness, people may be jealous... be happy anyway

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow... do good anyway

Give the best you have, and it may never be enough... give the best you have anyway ~ Mother Teresa